Down the Memory Lane of 2025

- Reflections of a year gone by and resolutions for a year to come: Part 4

“If you’re brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello.”

- Paulo Coelho

It’s the year-end again. That time of the year when you experience a sea of emotions. On the one hand, you are hoping the next year(or parts of it) will be different from this year. On the other hand, you are grateful for what you have and looking forward to the holiday season with your family and loved ones.

For me, it’s the time for me to keep up with the ritual- the time of the year when I share my round-up of the year with you, honestly and transparently.

This is my fourth year of review. And for the first time, I felt like I didn’t want to write it.

Not because the year was bad. Rough and tough, yes. Bad, no.

But because the evolving ecosystem meant my coaching practice ended up taking more of my personal time and energy than I would have liked. I had to stretch beyond how I wanted to work to achieve the targets set for my business. This conflicted with the ‘life-first’ business approach I had pivoted to this year.

2024 was a very good year for me. Originally, I had other plans for 2025. But destiny dealt its own cards, and as an individual, I found myself navigating one of the most challenging years in 2025.

In the spirit of celebrating one’s efforts as much as the outcome, my review’s format has also changed. If you have read my last year’s coaching practice round-up or the 2023 round-up, you will notice a change in structure this year. It is more reflective than outcome-based- mirroring the format of my reflection ritual.

I hope my learnings inspire you to make 2026 the best year of your life.

My Executive and Life Coaching Roundup for 2025

What Went Well?

1. Stopped taking coaching sessions on Sundays

Reclaiming one-half of the weekend was my first small but significant step towards building a ‘life-first’ business. When I started coaching in 2021, my belief was that leaders would be free only on weekends, and not taking sessions on Sundays would limit my business growth. So, I worked on both Saturdays and Sundays.

This was the year I moved past that limiting belief and said no to working on Sundays. And, guess what? My business didn’t suffer.

There wasn’t a single new coachee who wanted to sign up but didn’t because a Sunday slot wasn’t there. Some coachees did prefer Sundays to start with, but also respected my boundaries.

I should have let go of this limiting belief much earlier.

2. Said ‘No’ a lot more to reclaim ‘Yes’es that matter

“Can you take a session on Sunday?”

No.

“Can you speak at this TV segment?”

No.

After appearing on TV on the first day of 2025, I said no to at least 6 TV appearances during the year. Could be more.

Sharing my views on Career Growth on CNBC- the sole TV appearance I said 'Yes' to this year

“Can you speak at our TEDx event?”

No.

Had I said yes to all the invites I received after becoming a third-time TEDx speaker earlier this year, I would have been a 7X TEDx speaker by now. I chose to prioritise other aspects.

“We want to feature you as a Top 10 coach, as a Top 10 writer, as a Top 5 Women entrepreneur, etc, etc. Can we discuss at your earliest convenience?”

No.

While I was grateful, I had other, more important commitments. Sharing the answers, photos, etc., for all those features would have entailed too many back-and-forths. I chose to spend my time better.

“I want coaching from you, but can we have one(paid) session first before we commit to a longer duration?”

No.

I’ve said no to this request before, too. But these requests were more frequent this year, and my answer was firmer.

You’ve had a strategy session and an elaborate phone conversation with me, and can come back to me as many times as you want for any queries or clarifications. But once you’ve made up your mind, you have to commit to a reasonable time to achieve the results you want. If you can’t commit to a reasonable time of 2-3 months, then we aren’t a good fit as coach-coachee.

“Continue doing one YouTube video a week.”

No.

This was a No to self.

Since early 2022, when I started my YouTube channel, I have consistently put out one long-form video a week. That’s 52 videos a year for more than 3 years straight.

After making 32 videos during the year, it took a lot of willpower to put a temporary pause on public YouTube videos from 1^st September 2025, when I realised this wasn’t core to my objective.

Interestingly, the number of views and watch time went up substantially over last year, despite this pause.

Snapshot of analytics from my YouTube Channel

“Continue writing 4 blog posts and LinkedIn articles a month.”

No.

Again, this was a No to self, and I paused it from 1st October 2025 for similar reasons above, after penning 36 write-ups during the year. This review blog is my first post in 3 months and my first article in the last 2 months.

The demands on my time increased, and I had to say ‘No’ to a lot more things this year to be able to say ‘Yes’ to what mattered more.

3. Coaching practice exceeded its overall goals

• Income Goals- Achieved. My coaching practice exceeded the annual income and profitability goal set for it. This was despite my main lead-generation source, Bark India, which accounted for 65 per cent of my new clients till last year, shutting down at the beginning of this year. The efforts to plug the gap arising from this contingency, outside my control, stretched me as an entrepreneur.

My 2025 topline is lower by 9% compared to last year. In 2024, I exceeded my income targets by 26+%, and the corresponding figure for 2025 is 15%. The business maintained a healthy double-digit profit margin this year, despite a 10% decline vs last year. While the figures are lower, the benchmarks have exceeded.

I succeeded as a coach and entrepreneur. But I am not willing to pay as high a cost moving forward.

• Client Coaching Goals- Achieved. I had ended 2024 with 1870 client coaching hours. I am ending 2025 with 2505 hours. That’s 635 coaching hours this year from 64 coachees, in line with my objectives.

Snapshot of my coaching journey over the years

The number of hours has decreased from last year, which aligns with my selectivity in onboarding new clients and my 'life-first' business approach. However, 20% of the decline is also attributed to market forces and the business environment. I have explained this in more detail later.

• Reach Goals- Achieved. I started 2025 having my presence in 9 countries as a coach. I am ending the year with client presence in 14 countries with 320+ coachees from 295 companies.

Select companies where my coaching clients work

• Development Goals- Half-achieved.

I have applied to the International Coaching Federation (ICF) for my Master Certified Coach(MCC) accreditation after completing the required training hours and reaching 2500 client coaching hours in Q4 this year. Only 25 of certified coaches globally have this distinction, and the path isn’t easy. I am happy that I managed to plan and make time for this rigorous study despite a choc-a-bloc coaching and writing schedule.

While my goal was to become an MCC coach this year, ICF has its own cycle time, and there’s nothing pending from my side till it reverts.

In addition to completing the MCC-mandated training and mentorship, I attended workshops to upskill myself in four new areas in the field of coaching: Imposter Syndrome, Burnout, Breakthrough and AI.

One of the Coach Trainings I attended in 2025

4. Client retention strengthened materially

30 clients decided to invest further beyond the initial committed period this year, up from 15 last year. 19 of these clients repeated more than twice during the year. The 150+ client testimonials on my website and the increase in clients coming through word of mouth and referrals (17% of new clients during the year came through referrals) testify to clients’ satisfaction with my services, which is what delights me as a coach.

Some testimonials received from clients this year

This matters to me more than the business economics, because this confirms deep trust, strong delivery, and real transformation, especially notable in a 1:1 coaching practice where repeat engagement is not automatic.

5. More clients found me on Google vs last year. AI recommended my name to more and more prospective coachees.

I had bet on SEO for business development right from the first year of coaching. But 2025 was all about AI searches. It took a lot of reworks to optimise my site for GEO(AI) and the new Google SEO changes.

The numbers tell me the efforts have paid off: 28 people booked strategy sessions through my website, 6 more than last year. And ‘ChatGPT’ was the most common answer I got from them when I asked how they learned about me.

If you are up to speed with the times, AI can be more of a friend than a foe. 

6. Reinvented and innovated throughout the year

As a coach and entrepreneur, I would have worked the hardest in 2021- the year when I was reinventing myself from a corporate professional to an executive and life coach. 2025 is the year I have worked the hardest since, reinventing and innovating on the business side of coaching for much of the year.

While the business environment (the closure of Bark, Google SEO updates, the rising prominence of AI) pushed me to do it, I was also pulled by my passion for creating a curated membership forum for high-achieving professionals passionate about their personal development. Together, the push-pull factors stretched me in all directions.

As a leader, if you don’t innovate, you die. And I don't want to.

Here are the incremental efforts I took this year:

1.   Rebranded my business name, changed the logo and revisited my value proposition statement.

LinkedIn Banner with the new proposition statement

2. Introduced a formal referral mechanism. I always had referral benefits for my existing coachees, but this year I gave it a formal and organised contour.

Referral Brochure shared with existing coachees earlier this year

3. Focused heavily on LinkedIn as a lead-generation channel and got more hands-on with my LinkedIn content. Started a monthly LinkedIn Live- 'The Power Pause', a 40-minute segment where I go in-depth about a pressing objective or key concern of mid-career and senior leaders.

   This was followed by 'The Leaders Lens', where I conversed live with other leaders about their perspectives on work and life.

   

   One of The Power Pause session I spoke at live this year

Impressions and follower count on LinkedIn increased by 20% and 56% over last year, respectively.

4.  Invested in coaches and courses. 2025 was an investment-heavy year- in terms of both personal and business development. I worked with two coaches during the year and took up 3 different courses around the globe on varied subjects- one of them being AI.

subjects

5.     Updated my website to reflect my new positioning and adapt to the SEO and GEO changes. This was a major project I had to undertake to counter declining search traffic from AI impact. I handled the core tasks myself and engaged an external service provider for the other changes.

As you can see from the screenshot below, the website traffic fell significantly in Q2 and Q3 of this year, followed by an uptick in traffic in Q4, the period when I overhauled the site.

Screenshot of Blog Post Performance Statistics of My Coaching Website

Increase in engagement and more strategy session bookings through the website vs last year tells me I was able to do it successfully.

And here are what I perceive as transformational efforts:

1.  Came up with my signature coaching framework-E.D.G.E.™

My coachees have often complimented me for my structured approach and methodology. This was the year when I gave a formal name to the methodology that resonates with, aligns with, and energises me. I updated my business name to include this signature coaching framework.

The E.D.G.E.™ Framework

2. Held a group masterclass on ‘Speak to Influence’ outside my existing coachees' network.

I only hold group workshops or corporate trainings by invitation, and don’t hold private group sessions. That was till last year. This year, I made an exception, largely because this was a pain point that was coming very prominently in client sessions. So I hosted this as a low-cost option to share my perspective on the subject.

The Speak to Influence Masterclass

A subscriber to my weekly newsletter had this to say after coming to know about the masterclass in the newsletter- “You don’t hold workshops or group sessions. So I registered immediately after receiving your email, because I don’t know when you will do this again.”

Even I don’t know when, or if, I will do this again.

The masterclass had 14 attendees from all corners of the globe and received excellent feedback. It took 3 weeks of sustained organic promotion to do this, and I am not sure if I will undertake this effort again.

3.  (Pre) launched a curated membership forum- The EDGE Collective- for my long-time coachees.

The objective is to augment the 1:1 sessions with structure, tools and community support to empower them to achieve their next level, again and again.

This was my second attempt to start a membership forum. If you have read my 2023 annual review will recall my unsuccessful attempt that year.

I learnt, refined and decided to start small. The EDGE Collective launched this month with invitations to 20 select long-term clients, who I know are very invested and committed to their long-term development. And I got 5 'founding members', as the initial cohort is called, who decided to trust me further and take this up.

The invitation brochure for The EDGE Collective

Outside of my 1:1 coaching, I am determined to give most of my time and effort to The EDGE Collective in 2026 to make it a real wow before I expand it next year.

4. Created, developed and launched my digital coaching clone - Coach Smita D Jain AI.

The objective of Coach Smita D Jain AI is to reduce the friction for my coachees- I can’t be available 24/7. My AI can.

Welcome Page of Coach Smita D Jain AI

AI adds value when used ethically with guardrails. And if you don’t leverage AI to innovate, you are behind the times.

I intend to use AI for value, not to grow volumes. Coach Smita D Jain AI is available only inside The EDGE Collective, and I intend it to remain that way.

7. Deepened and widened my impact with ‘Leading with Words’

My coaching and writing came together with the book ‘Leading with Words: How to inspire, drive and influence as a transformative leader.’ I combined my best as a coach and writer to author this book, and I am proud of the result.

Cover of Leading With Words- a book on Leadership Communication

My fifth book and debut non-fiction is a product of 2500+ coaching conversations, something I wish I had when I was climbing the ladder in my corporate career.

I have my coachees to thank for this. About 60-65% of my clients work with me on some leadership communication challenge. And they often asked me if there was a book I could recommend. There wasn’t. So, I decided to write it.

The book also enables me to reach more people and help them to enhance their workplace communication. I can’t coach everyone. But everyone can read my book.

Here’s a DM from someone who read the book even though they didn’t know me. One of my highlights for the year.

A direct reader feedback on Leading With Words

8. Delivered my third TEDx talk in Q1. Mentored a coachee to become a TEDx speaker in Q4.

It is always special to speak on the red carpet. That I shared the why and how behind my career reinvention in Indore- the city where I was born, passed my high school and then did my MBA made the occasion momentous for me. From reinventing myself to coaching others to make a successful career pivot to now inspiring thousands through my short but eventful journey- life has come a full circle.

Delivering my third TEDx talk

At 26K+ views, this was my most viewed TEDx talk to date.

However, the joy of mentoring another to shine on the red carpet surpassed the joy of reaching there yourself. At least that was the case for me. I am fortunate to have mentored Dr Divya Sunita Raviraj to articulate her incredible story from the Ukraine war zone on the big stage, and was a proud coach when she sent me this message:

Proud to mentor Dr Divya to shine on the TEDx stage

9.   Received awards and accolades

I am grateful that the universe continues recognising me for my work. CEO Insights named me among the ‘Top 10 Executive Coaches in India’ for 2025 and featured me on their magazine cover in Q1 of this year. In Nov 2025, I was awarded the prestigious Dr Sarojini Naidu International award for Working Women by IWFF and ICMEi.

Some recognitions received during the year

Between the beginning and end of the year, I sent polite regrets to at least five other organisations that wanted to honour me as a coach or entrepreneur, and suggested some other names to them.

I am at a stage where impact matters more than client success holds greater importance than external recognition.

Outside direct impact, the one thing I am extremely proud of is Feedspot naming my life coaching blog as India’s #1 life coaching blog for 2025. I am happy that even when I am not directly supporting people, my words carry an impact.

Ranked as India's #1 Life Coaching Blog

10.     My views on Crisis Management found place in an international book written by a Forbes editor

The Crisis Playbook, authored by Edward Segal, a seasoned Forbes contributor, features views by Elon Musk, Taylor Swift, leaders from Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Boeing and other leading companies. It also has my views on the subject!

My views on Crisis Communication is featured in this international book

I am glad to be in august company in a book on this subject that ties in with my expertise in leadership communication.

Apart from the above, my words found place in multiple news articles around the globe. I have stopped taking stock of these mentions. Not because I don’t value them. But because of my priorities.

11. Continued integrating work and life as a coachpreneur

·       Going for staycations on weekdays with family- check. Happened multiple times.

·       Taking the weekday off on my daughter’s birthday- check.

·       Taking long vacations and visiting new places- check. Took 2 during the year. More importantly, I didn’t carry my laptop during these trips.

·       Going for shopping or movies on weekday afternoons- check. Was happy to not wait for the weekends whenever this happened

·       A quick trip at short notice to home town when I became an aunt- check. The coaching sessions happened from there

·       Spending a good amount of time with my mother and family before the year ends- check. I am drafting this while on a week-long visit, taking my coaching sessions from here.

I am grateful for the time and location freedom that comes with having my own set-up and allows me to do value-adding work without compromising on client commitments. I started planning a ‘life-first’ business this year, and gradually, I am getting there.

12.   Reflection ritual became an integral part of my weekly routine

I always took time to reflect on my journey. This year, I made it a weekly habit and started maintaining a separate journal for it.

Every Sunday, I sat down and answered these 3 questions for myself:

1.     What are my WoWs- Wins of the week?

2.     What could have been better?

3.     What will make the next week great?

I answered these questions at a whole-person level- as a coach, entrepreneur, writer, wife and mother rather than looking at each role in isolation.

This has been a game-changer for me. Not only am I celebrating my achievements regularly, but also planning my following week with a clearer perspective. I am evolving faster across all my roles.

What Could Have Been Better?

1. Severe Mom-guilt affected my emotional resilience

I pride myself on giving my best in every coaching session. But many times this year, it was damn hard.

Worries and anxieties for my daughter, who is a special-needs child, and her future reached their peak. Her evident displeasure and tantrums to get my attention when I work didn't help.

There was a period this year when she had surgery and unexpectedly landed in the ICU. I had written briefly about the toughest 24 hours of my life here. 

I sought professional help for some time during the year to manage my emotions and stay strong for my family.

2. The volatile economic environment meant more number of sensitive coaching conversations

Words like ‘layoffs’, ‘retrenchment’, ‘reorg’, ‘stress’, ‘toxicity’, ‘visa policy changes’, ‘Plan B’ and ‘burnout’ came during coaching conversations much more frequently in 2025 compared to the previous years. Across countries, hierarchies and life stages.

The number of occasions when coachees broke down during sessions was far higher than I had witnessed as a coach in previous years.

While as a coach, I have to remain empathetically dispassionate during such conversations, as a human, I feel for people I know well.

The cumulative effect of these conversations further added to the adverse emotional state arising from my personal challenges. 

3. Multiple headwinds arriving at the same time adversely impacted the new client count

Murphy’s law operated at its peak this year. Everything that could go wrong with my new client acquisition funnel that I had carefully built and nurtured over the past three years, went wrong.

Google made major changes to its search algorithms the same time Bark India shut its operations in India. On the one hand, my main client-lead generation source no longer existed. On the other hand, from being in the Top 5 results of Google, my coaching website got pushed to Page 2 of Google, which doesn't amount to much in search results.

Screenshot of the Traffic Stats of my Website

Bark+ Google accounted for 75% of my new client pipeline in 2024 put together. The survival of my business was in line. I had to experiment, innovate and adapt fast.

To top it off, corporates slowed down significantly on 'discretionary’ L&D training and workshops in a tough business environment. Compared to the 17 workshops cum speaking sessions last year, I had only 4 this year; none of these were from corporates. It wasn't the case of opportunities not converting. Only 1 new opportunity was discussed this year, which remains ongoing at the time of writing this.

Sharing my views on mental health and EQ

The rupee depreciation further strained business economics, with much of business expenses incurred in dollars. The headwinds impacted my coaching practice.

I had 158 unique prospect conversations, compared with 391 last year. I coached 35 new clients this year. About 3 new clients per month is decent, and I could have worked with more had I said yes in more cases. However, the corresponding number was 54 last year.

The silver lining was that my conversion rate improved to 38% from 30% last year, and my repeat client ratio rose to 58% from 38% last year.

A 7% drop in overall client count leading to a 9% drop in revenue, with a double-digit profit margin, when 85% of the business development pipeline was at risk at the beginning of the year tells me that I led the business well on the face of the headwinds.

4. Too many parallel initiatives in a fragile year led to capacity strain

Rebranding, signature method creation, LinkedIn Lives, YouTube videos, entrepreneurial coaching, holding a paid masterclass, book launch, MCC application, social media presence, new coaches and courses, Getting EDGE Collective off the ground, guiding my team members, daily writing, speaking invitations, coaching sessions, family and household responsibilities.

Each of the above was reasonable on its own. Together, they scattered focus and drained my energy in a volatile year.

As a coach, I believe in keeping things simple, focusing and giving my best in fewer bets before moving on to my next. As an entrepreneur, I deviated from this principle. And suffered as a person.

I went on an experimentation overdrive to plug the client acquisition gap that emerged after the closure of Bark India and Google SEO+GEO updates. And there were very few white spaces on my day-to-day schedule.

While I am a good planner, with a full coaching calendar, speaking engagements, and multiple business development activities, I had no space for spontaneous indulgences or sudden exigencies on regular days. Even after saying no to multiple things.

Yes, I met my income targets despite environmental volatility and a major lead source shutdown. But it didn’t come at my preferred capacity and took too high a toll.

My increased workload added to the mental strain.

5. Over-investment in LinkedIn relative to returns

I bet on LinkedIn as a channel to substitute Bark and became more hands-on with content posting, which consumed disproportionate energy. A mistake.

My impressions and followers grew by 20% and 56% respectively over last year, and I received a lot of DMs from leaders as to how my posts resonated.

 Screenshot of My LinkedIn Content Impressions

But the effort was disproportionate to the results.

5 new clients came from the platform, vis-à-vis 2 last year, when I hadn’t given it one-fifth of the time I gave this year.

The effort-to-revenue ratio is misaligned with my trust-based business model. The lesson is well reinforced.

6. Leading different teams of service providers added an invisible load

Outsourcing more non-core activities did not reduce my cognitive effort. Re-explaining, correcting, and managing quality mismatches contributed to emotional fatigue rather than relief. While I expanded my team this year and value their contribution, I had higher expectations in terms of quality and output.

To be fair, my multiple, parallel experiments meant they struggled to match my pace, thoughts, and vision despite trying their best.

Expectation and delivery mismatch was prevalent in previous years as well. They became more acute in a tough year. As a leader, I held firm on my non-negotiables and compromised on the rest without losing my cool. 

7. Physical health deserved more attention

A sedentary role. Work(mostly) out of the home. Stopping badminton meant minimal physical activity.

Result: Knee aches, neck pain, muscle discomfort and weight gain.

I had a lot on my plate. But that’s an excuse.

I would have found time for it had I considered it important. Despite pressures and constraints, I never missed a single day of my daily writing, for instance.

You can’t do your best unless you feel your best. And I didn’t feel my best this year.

Executive and Life Coaching Business Overall Progress Vs. Plan in 2025

Here’s the actual progress against the 2025 goals I had set for myself in my annual reflection last year:

1.  Become an ICF-accredited Master Certified Coach (MCC): Check.

I will not call it achieved because the ICF process is still ongoing, but I have completed the steps from my side, and I can’t do anything except wait for them to come back.

2. Focus on two key channels for Business Development Efforts- SEO and one alternative to Bark: Achieved. This one goal took two-thirds of my energies during the year. After a year of experiments and learning, I finally have an aligned answer.

If you deliver value to your clients, they will stay with you and become your biggest advocates. Client retention and referral were the largest volume contributor and the second largest value contributor during the year. This is what energises and motivates me as I look ahead to the next year.

3. Focused brand-building efforts on LinkedIn via knowledge sharing. Will aim to establish thought leadership in one particular area: Achieved.

The area is leadership communication, and I am well recognised for my views on the subject. LinkedIn will continue to be a key brand-building platform, but I will not view it through a business development lens again.

4.    Invest in my development as a coach by completing at least two more certifications besides the MCC credential and undertaking at least one training/course a month: Half-achieved.

While I did undertake one training a month, not every course was oriented towards improving my coaching craft. And I couldn’t take any additional certifications this year, aside from the MCC credential, which was time-consuming and demanding.

I accept this fact with compassion. The year took a lot out of me, and I did the best I could.

What Will Make 2026 Great: My Goals as an Executive and Life Coach

My three non-negotiable principles for 2026 are:

1. Pause experimentation and consolidate what I already have instead of starting any new initiative. The ‘power pause’ from experiments is required for long-term sustainability

2. See my coaching venture from a ‘practice’ lens rather than a ‘business’ lens. The entrepreneur in me will take a back seat as the coach takes over. I want to learn, serve, and have fun without having to keep an eye on business economics every month.

3. Focus on client longevity over client volume. I will hone my coaching craft so that, instead of coming to me for an acute challenge, clients view our coaching association as an ongoing leadership partnership. This means more certifications, trainings, and readings on coaching subjects. The economics will fall in place by default.

My energy word for 2026 is ‘ease’. I want to have more white spaces in my calendar and go about my day feeling calm, not rushed.

My specific executive and life coaching goals for 2026, centred around the above principles are:

1. Grow and execute The EDGE Collective with clarity. EDGE Collective will become the next ethical, structured continuation for my 1:1 coachees who are already succeeding. Moving forward, I will introduce new offerings that will be exclusive to this forum moving forward.

2. I will focus on fewer platforms for higher leverage. I will shift my energies away from high-frequency social posting toward channels that pull: Google, AI, referrals, selective visibility tied to writing and thought leadership.

3. Time will be a core metric. Success in 2026 will not only be measured in revenue but also in reduced working hours, more family presence, and sustained energy.

Here’s my “No” list for 2026.

• No replacing lost revenue with ‘non-coachable’ clients

• No high-frequency content for noise that doesn’t convert to business goals

• No selling inside coaching conversations (I have never done that, but I wanted to write it down in black & white)

• No new initiatives or growth plans that ignore emotional and family costs

My Second Career: Journey as a Writer

2025 has been an equally eventful year in my writing career with the publication of my fifth book and some significant writing accolades. I have penned the blog post in a similar format at my coaching website here if you wish to read the same.

A Special Day: Book Signing at the Oxford Book Store

The Last Word: Building a ‘life-first’ coaching practice is a priority

The world will hate you, rate you, shake you and break you. How strong you stand is what will make you.

2025 was the year I got white hair. Despite that, it was a good year. Maybe even great if I look at the outcomes without dwelling on the journey.

Overall, it stretched me both personally and professionally, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I will be a better coach in 2026 because of the year gone by.

2026 is not going to be about proving anything. It will continue to be about building a sustainable practice that respects my limits, my values, my family, and my craft, while still meeting my professional aspirations.

The same time next year, my coaching practice will be the ‘life-first’ venture that I want it to be. I know that.

Wishing you an empowered 2026. Cheers!

Do you want to make 2026 the best year of your life? Read my tips for the same here.

Want to make 2026 your most empowered year yet? Book a strategy session with me, and let us see what we can do together.

Book a Strategy Session Now

Smita D Jain is a Certified Life Coach, Executive Coach and NLP Practitioner.

Prior to her journey as a coach, Smita had extensive experience of 14 years as a corporate and business strategy professional with Fortune 500 companies. She is also a 3X TEDx speaker, a speaker at various public forums, a published writer, and an Amazon bestselling author.

You can learn more about Personal Empowerment Life Coach and Executive Coach Smita D Jain’s ‘Empower Yourself’ Coaching Programs by visiting www.lifecoachsmitadjain.com and book a strategy session at https://www.lifecoachsmitadjain.com/booking. You can know more about her writings at https://www.smitaswritepen.com/